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June 8, 2023
by admin

DWP publishes first set of quarterly universal credit WCA statistics following criticism from both the Work and Pensions Committee and Office for Statistics Regulation for having failed to do so

Figures show 1.7 million people claiming universal credit on health grounds, including 1.1 million assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity

The DWP has today published the first set of quarterly universal credit work capability assessment (WCA) statistics.

The publication of the experimental official statistics follows repeated calls for the DWP to collate and publish statistics on the WCA in universal credit that it had itself acknowledged as an 'area for further exploration' back in 2017.

However, while the Office for Statistics Regulation had said in April 2022 that there had been a 'continued and unfulfilled need' for WCA statistics since the rollout of universal credit, and the Work and Pensions Select Committee had expressed its concern that the DWP's 'lack of transparency' was undermining public trust, the then Work and Pensions Secretary Dr Thérèse Coffey said in July 2022 –

‘There are currently no plans to develop official statistics on universal credit claimants undergoing a WCA. While we will keep this position under review, I anticipate there will be fewer resources available and I am not committing to developing new statistics at this time.’

Covering the period April 2019 to March 2023, the new data release includes statistics on people the DWP refers to as being on 'universal credit health' (ie people on universal credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work) – 

  • as at March 2023, 1.7 million people were on universal credit health compared to 1.3 million a year earlier;
  • of these, 259,000 (15 per cent) had acceptable medical evidence of a restricted ability to work pre-WCA; 295,000 (18 per cent) were assessed as having limited capability for work (LCW), and 1.1 million (67 per cent) were assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA);
  • in March 2023, more than a quarter (29 per cent) of people on universal credit had a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work – up 5 percentage points from March 2022; and
  • the regions with the highest proportion of universal credit health cases relative to overall universal credit claimants was Scotland (36 per cent) followed by Wales (35 per cent), with the lowest being London (22 per cent).

The full monthly time series of the universal credit health caseload is shown in the graph –

 

In addition, in relation to universal credit WCA decisions, the new statistics show that –

  • 1.9 million WCA decisions were made in the period between April 2019 and February 2023 – 16 per cent of these found claimants had no LCW and hence no longer on universal credit health, 19 per cent found LCW, and 65 per cent LCWRA;
  • the region with the highest proportion of LCWRA decisions was the North West (69 per cent) and the lowest the North East (59 per cent); and
  • the proportion of decisions for LCWRA remained stable at 65 per cent in the quarter ending February 2022 and 64 per cent in the quarter ending February 2023.

The full monthly time series for WCA outcome decisions is shown in the graph –

 

For more information, see Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment, April 2019 to March 2023 from gov.uk

NB – the DWP has also issued Employment and support allowance (ESA): outcomes of WCA including mandatory reconsiderations and appeals: June 2023 that show that in the quarter to December 2022 there were 23,000 completed WCAs recorded, an 8 per cent reduction when compared to the previous quarter to September 2022, of which 65 per cent resulted in a support group outcome, 12 per cent were placed in the work-related activity group, and 22 per cent were found fit for work

See also Universal Credit WCA statistics: release strategy, also published today, in which the DWP invites feedback on proposals to further develop the universal credit WCA statistics in phases, including by adding ESA migrated claims and initial and repeat claims; decisions by medical condition; numbers of WCA mandatory reconsiderations registrations, clearances and outcomes; the number of universal credit WCA appeals by stage of process and outcomes; and data on universal credit WCA clearance times.